Nashville area, building new home help

[davidki]

BaldLoonie, Thanks for the photos, I do plan to talk about perhaps Celulose insullation, my contractor and others have said it could add to the insullation bill quite a bit but, hey, I'll probably get a bid, I have read good things about it.

I dont think the Nashville area is anywhere as harsh as many other parts of the country, and I think we are addressing things like windows and sealing the house..

That is Good info on the newer heat pumps, the house were in now is just 6 years old, it has a trane 1200Xl dual fuel system, were in a 2300 sq ft home and when it gets in the low 40's it gets pretty chily for us (remember, were from Southern California). I'm going to do more research, I am going to get mutilple bids for various options...

I sure would like to just go with out the dual fuel unit but I'm not sure if we will get the heat we will look for coming from a "GAS" heated home out west, it's quite different from the Heat Pumps.

Thanks again for any help you folks can give.

[cem-bsee]

I doubt that 1000g propane will do it -- friends live 45m south of you in Lewisburg TN, fill 800g tank 2x ea yr -- not big house!
1963 Nvl got 10.4" sno; in 1985 was -17F, in 1952 was 107F.

[davidki]

I spoke with my neighbor last night, his house is about 2700 sq ft, single level, he has the same heat pump dual fuel system as this house and he filled his 250 gal tank in September, they fill to 85% of the 250 Gallons and right now, he is down to abut 35 n the meter, so, that doesn 't seem to bad, he said he usually goes through one tank per year in his house.

My concern is if we just went straight heat pump would we be warm enough, that for us is an unknown so, I am going to get bids on all my options and see what the budget looks like, were still putting in the propane tank so its figured in to the budget.

I will be interested hearing more about the heating of straight heat pumps vs having to install dual fuel..

Thanks again to eveyone for their comments.

Dave

[uktra]

I would recommend you go with cellulose. You need to net and dense pack not wet blow this product. As far as comfort with propane or electricity--the thermal shell determinds a lot of the comfort, do that right and you will be comfortable. If you have more than one HVAC unit, propane gets expensive to install and maintane. Plus you are betting on the price stability of propane vs electricity. I'll bet on electricity as being much more stable.

[filterchanger]

if the heatpump ends up sized out at 1000 sq foot per ton you are going to be cold

[wyounger]

You actually won't notice as much of the lukewarm output issue with a nice electric-backup heat pump relative to operating dual fuel.

In borderline weather, a dual fuel unit has a choice: it can either run cheap but lukewarm heat pump output or it can fall back to more expensive fossil fuel. There is no middle ground. The typical result is that dual fuel units are usually set to fall back to fossil fuels at 30-40 degrees, either because of balance point or comfort concerns. But an all-electric unit can run the heat pump in much colder weather and *simultaneously* use supplemental electric heat to maintain indoor temp when you're below the balance point and also to keep supply air temperatures up. Older, less elaborate heat pump setups weren't as good at this, but especially with recent, high-quality heat pump thermostats and multistage resistance elements, they are now much better at maintaining comfort.

Having lived there and been around all of these sorts of equipment, I wouldn't hesitate to put a nice all-electric heat pump anywhere in Tennessee.

Edit: I'm from Southern California too. A good heat pump in Tennessee can still be set up to satisfy us.

[Edited by wyounger on 02-08-2005 at 10:40 AM]

[davidki]

Thanks for the input wyounger, I appreciate that, I am going to look at all our options, both Electric and propane, the cost of Electric here is 06.6 and thats' pretty cheap compared to SC.

Where in Southern California are you located, we were in Orange County, near Mission Viejo..

Dave

[wyounger]

I grew up in Hacienda Heights... LA County, San Gabriel valley. I don't think I had ever seen a heat pump or an electric water heater until I moved to Tennessee. Then again, I had never seen a basement in person, either.

[davidki]

Ok, so, do you now live in Tennessee, I looked at your profile and it did not say. If so, where in Tennessee do you live?